Oversight on Impact of Federal Student Aid Reductions. Examination on the Impact of Federal Student Aid Reductions on Students, Their Families, and Institutions of Higher Education. Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Education, Arts and Humanities of the Committee on Labor and Human Resources, United States Senate, Ninety-Seventh Congress, First Session (Burlington, Vermont, December 7, 1981; Storrs, Connecticut, February 19, 1982).

Congress of the U.S., Washington, DC. Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources.

Hearings are presented of the Committee on Labor and Human Resources, U.S. Senate, on the impact of federal student aid reductions in Vermont and Connecticut. Statements by various college administrators, college students, citizens, and state legislators are provided. More than half the students who attend higher education institutions in Vermont receive federal aid in the form of grants and guaranteed loans, amounting to almost $50 million in the 1981 school year. It is suggested by Senator Robert T. Stafford that cuts in federal student assistance will have a severe impact on the ability of qualified Vermonters to attend schools of higher education, and that cuts have been proposed at a time when college costs are increasing faster than the general rate of inflation. According to Senator Lowell Weicker, Jr., many of the students who attend colleges and universities in Connecticut receive federal aid in the form of grants and student loans. The aid totals almost $281 million in the 1981 academic year. Comments and panel discussions are presented by presidents of colleges in Vermont and Connecticut and by other concerned officials and people affected by the proposed cuts. The president of Trinity College suggests that adoption of the Senate Appropriations Committee recommendation for the Special Educational Opportunities Program would mean a projected one-third reduction, and the changes in the guaranteed student loan program would affect 70 percent of the students enrolled half time or more. In general, the reductions that have been outlined would result in an increase of unmet needs from $2,500 in 1981 to $3,300 in 1982. In order to fund students with only $2,500 remaining need, 16 percent of current aid recipients will be unable to attend Trinity College, Vermont. An article on the costs versus benefits of competitive employment for mentally retarded persons by Ken Schneider and others is appended. (SW)